Rebecca, I'm so impressed with your healthy living venture and I'm wondering if you can point me to just HOW you accomplished this weight loss...did you follow a specific diet or what?
This question was posed to me recently in a comment on my Power, Love and Self-Control blog. Here is my "long" answer. At the age of 60, I am no newcomer to diets. I have tried many. Almost all of them have been successful in proportion to my diligence. Therefore, it is no surprise that when my diligence diminishes, I have gained weight.My 30+ pound weight loss in the past 5 months has happened as I have made fresh vegetables and fruit the mainstays of my diet. Each day I have tried to have 3-4 ounce of lean protein (usually chicken breast; sometimes lean beef or turkey sausage). I've tried to include fish at least once a week--and often twice. I have eaten very little bread, pasta or desserts. I have also been quite consistent in walking 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.
Early on I vocalized my commitment to lose weight and asked for prayer in the small, home fellowship group my husband and I meet with every other week. I believe this has also played a large part in my weight loss. I journal daily, pray daily, and write my goal weight every day at the beginning of my journal entry for that day.
Summing it up, I've synthesized what I know nutritionally, tried to be honest about my portion sizes, prayed, and exercised. That has been MY part. God's part has been the larger part. I am aware that His power is at work in me; His grace is available to me; He has given me the spirit of love and of power and of self-control.
It is amazing how it is not a diet at all that we embark, but to live healthy takes a great deal of prayer and knowing what portion sizes are!
ReplyDeleteYou are truly an inspiration dear friend ;-)
lady m
Good for you, Rebecca!
ReplyDeleteCommendable determination and commitment!
A very beautiful thanksgiving and glory post to the Good Lord too!
All the best,
Eileen
Oh but you are a wonderful and encouraging woman. You give thanks to God and do his work. You help others with your mouth watering menus and showing us your trust and faith in God makes it easy for all of us to follow Rebecca.
ReplyDeleteLove your post, love you my friend....:-)Hugs
Amen! I'm following the path behind you... You are a woman of great encouragement!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing sweetie.
ReplyDeleteThis is so perfect Rebecca. It's exactly how I lost 40+ pounds. I really believe that adding more fruits and vegetables is the main thing, making it more of a lifestyle instead of a diet. I also had to get very creative with my cooking and have made up many new good recipes. My husband even likes them. I can't do the walking but I can work out as long as I don't stress the knee! Haven't you found that eating this way makes you feel more energy? Love Di
ReplyDeleteRebecca, thank you for this and for taking my question seriously. I too am 60 and am no newcomer to diets. But they have all failed me as well when my diligence has waned! I know I cannot live without "bread, pasta or desserts" but I think I could learn to have them more sparingly, and add in the other components that you have outlined. I need to do some serious soul searching, and praying...THANK YOU for being such an open book and an inspiration. I know that this could not have been easy for you. Your approach makes so much sense.
ReplyDeleteThis is my second try at commenting this morning...I don't believe the first one was sucessful...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I admire your determination Rebecca to feel your best...in my 50's I learned to not concentrate on what not to eat, but on what I could and should eat to be healthy...which is a more positive action...and places one in a better frame of mind...than depriving does.
The Mediterranean way of eating and walking has worked for me these past 15 years...allowing me to eat desserts, my favorite breads, and dark chocolate...and still be the size I'm most comfortable with.
Health is my foremost goal where food is concerned! I think your thoughts are similar.
To be happy and healthy!
Rebecca, the thing that struck me most about your wonderful weight loss was the journaling and the writing down of your weight daily. To stay on track spiritually and physically one must journal on paper or in one's mind but it is the only way to really stay with it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for giving me new incentive to take off these unwanted 15 pounds.
blessings and hugs,
marcy
Prayer is number one key...i must get back to putting God first in my weight loss attempts. I have found my appetite decreasing as i ask the Lord to help me. The walking is the next main key...to everyone i know that has lost weight, they walk. I am unable to walk, but i can do upper body exercise which help.
ReplyDeleteMy pumpkin pie yesterday was AWESOME, i could have eaten the whole thing..but i am saving my next piece till Thanksgiving.
Thanks for sharing your journey..as always you do a great job.